Seven
by Shaydrall
Summary: There's a lot to be said about second chances, but that's about it. They're rarely offered in a world where mistakes lead to death. But that's no fun, so buckle up and let's just do it anyway. In which Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura each find themselves back in time and are honestly not too upset about it. The catch? None of them know about the other two. Will they ever?
1. This Looks Awfully Familiar

Alright, so here's something else that's on my computer that I actually like a lot. What do you think, everyone?

I claim no ownership of anything related to Naruto.

* * *

 _So… Naruto got sent back in time. What else is new? Wait, Sasuke as well? I suppose that's a little more uncommon. Sounds like Kakashi's going to have a pretty cool team this time apart from- Hmm? What do you mean Sakura too? Isn't that kind of cheating? Hang on, do any of them even know about the others? This is going to be a bit of a mess isn't it..._

 **xxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hmm, how can I say this…"

Hatake Kakashi paused for a moment to take in the three new academy graduates before him.

Haruno Sakura, the class's top kunoichi and the one he'd expected to have the most tact of the three was sitting in the first row with her head leaning against one hand, lightly snoozing if the minute rise and fall of her shoulders was anything to go by. Directly next to her was Uchiha Sasuke, the top student of the year overall. As if he were trying to outdo the girl beside him, he was currently sitting with his legs crossed over the desk top, head back and clearly asleep. The dead last however?

Naruto was snoring loudly on his back, fully spread out on the remainder of the open desk.

"Was I really that late?"

 **XXXXX**

 **Chapter 1: This looks awfully familiar…**

Naruto Uzumaki was, without a doubt, an idiot.

At least that's what everyone in the village thought. There was barely a soul who didn't know of the pain in the ass in some capacity, and their dislike of him was reflected across an equally large statistic. How could they not dislike him when he constantly pulled pranks and caused more mayhem than most village attacks during wartime? When he harbored the greatest demon on the face of the planet within his being? If he could honestly walk down the street like he was doing just then, oblivious to the heavy glares that were leveled at him from all directions? The boy was simply contemptible.

However, if anyone could listen to the boy's thoughts at that moment, they would probably reconsider their opinion of him.

 _…Did I seriously go back in time?_

Yes, they'd have to add crazy to the list.

See, the issue that Naruto was having was that he'd woken up in his old apartment that morning, and not where he remembered passing out earlier. Also he'd been a lot older at the time.

Understandably, he'd freaked out for a bit once confirming that it wasn't one big genjutsu; double checked that he still had "little Uzumaki", then made a clone and slapped himself twice.

Now though he was just taking a walk and rolling with it.

 _This is so bizarre._

Naruto cast his gaze about the market street. He recognized the shops and people easily, but it was a surreal experience. Like he was strolling through a dream. The village had changed over the years after all, particularly considering the times it had been nearly leveled to the ground. People he'd seen long dead now walked the streets without a care to their grim futures. And those looks… disgust, loathing, even fear. No matter where he turned he was met with ice.

 _I almost forgot how much everyone used to hate me. Almost._

"Oh, hey there Naruto! The usual?"

It took him a second to realize where he was. His feet had taken him to his favorite ramen stand automatically. Ayame's cheerful face smiled at him from just beneath the cloth hanging over the awning. Now there was a timeless experience that warmed him like a ray of purest sunshine.

"No money nee-chan," he said with a rueful grin. A common occurrence, really. Especially with no kind of mission pay to help out yet. His monthly stipend only went so far after all.

"Next time then," she replied, shrugging. "I'll make dad give you a free bowl."

"Where is he?" Naruto asked, curious. It wasn't often the old man left his stall.

"Just getting some stuff we're low on. The lunch rush will be starting soon." Two men entered the booth, sitting on the stools. "Talk to you later!"

Waving at the already distracted girl, Naruto tensed his legs, seeming to vanish on the spot to any civilian that had been watching him. He similarly appeared on a nearby roof, wincing.

"Owwww…"

He fell back into his behind, rubbing his ankles. Had he broken them? Surely they weren't just sore.

"Definitely a kid body," he grumbled, resigning himself to sitting there until they healed. He'd need to lay off his body until he knew he wouldn't break it to pieces. At least with Kurama it wouldn't take that long. Though thinking of…

Naruto closed his eyes, lying back against the warm tiled roof. Within seconds he was in the sewer-like representation of the seal space.

"What a mess," Naruto sighed, shin deep in water. The mass of tiny pipes that ran along the ceiling dripped at various places, unlike the far larger ones that he knew were completely empty. "Kurama!"

There was no answer. Not that he'd expected one.

"Let's see… Left, left, right, left?" Naruto wondered aloud, the only other sounds coming from his legs cutting through the water. As with being through the village, it had been just as long since he'd wandered through his sewer themed headspace. Not like it mattered which way he went. Every path led to the same place, even the ones that technically should have him going endlessly in circles.

 **"Brat…"**

"There you are," said Naruto cheerily, finally emerging into the cavernous room that housed the fox. He remembered how often he'd find the fox laying down in boredom, a massive solitary eye being the only indication that he was even paying attention to the blonde. This time however…

 **"How do you know that name?"**

The Kyuubi was on his feet, towering over him with probably the most intimidating glare he'd ever felt from the sentient mass of chakra. That being said, the positively mind numbing paralysis anyone likely would have felt as their body shut down in terror simply washed over the blonde like a gentle breeze, the stupidly cheerful grin he was returning completely unaffected.

"You told me, fuzz brain."

 **"I did NOT!"** was the furious response. The water surged outwards with the intensity of the roar.

Naruto just rolled his eyes, walking past the seal paper and unconcernedly stepping through the wide bars of the cage. Within moments he'd been pinned to the ground with a massive hand. The water easily closed over his head, cutting off his air. Of course this was putting aside the crushing pressure he was receiving to his entire body. Seconds later he was lifted out of the water, high above the ground, now at eye level with the fox. The interesting thing was that he was completely dry. A weird effect for an equally weird space.

 **"You sealed your fate the moment you entered my cage,"** the Kyuubi told him, teeth displayed in a terrifyingly wide grin that easily took up his entire field of vision. **"Any last requests before I consume your pitiable mind and take control of your body? People you'd like me to spare when I reduce this hive of human waste to dust?"**

The look on his face promised anything but mercy.

Naruto spit out a mouthful of water. "Do I really not seem any different to you than usual?"

 **"Irrelevant."**

"Your face is irrelevant."

The Kyuubi stared at him in silence for a moment before speaking once more.

 **"Where did you learn that name?"**

"I said it already, you told me," Naruto said patiently, picking at his ear with the hand he'd managed to wiggle free. The Kyuubi growled but nothing further.

 **"...How?"**

At this Naruto gave him a puzzled look.

"Years from now… I think I went back in time? Like my mind did but not my body. Definitely not dreaming; already checked. Not a genjutsu either. And you're here, which pretty much rules everything else out anyway. Don't know what I'd do if you weren't to be honest. Or if I were a girl." He shuddered at the thought.

It was clear the Kyuubi had been caught off guard. Whatever he'd been expecting the boy to say it certainly wasn't that.

 **"Do you take me for a fool, brat?"**

Naruto shook his head, taken aback. "No way, you're the smartest guy I know. I mean…" He couldn't help but send a grin at the fox despite the way its hand increased the pressure on him. "You're like, way older than ji-ji. You know a _ton_ of stuff."

 **"Time travel is a fairytale,"** the Kyuubi growled. At this Naruto's expression became a bit stubborn.

"I still think it happened."

 **"Then prove it."**

"If me knowing your name isn't good enough, then what can I say?"

The Kyuubi just held his glare, unaffected by the boy's words.

 **"Figure it out."**

For the first time, Naruto returned the glare with one of his own.

"Fine. Let me go and I will."

The two stared in silence, the Kyuubi, eyes unreadable, Naruto, expression blank. They stayed like this for a minute before…

 **"Hmph…"**

With a grunt the grip on Naruto's body slackened, allowing him to drop the considerable distance back to the ground. He landed easily on the top of the water, barely a ripple indicating anything had happened.

"Ouch, the ankles, the ankles," Naruto whined, falling with a small splash onto his backside while he rubbed them. The Kyuubi merely let out a short breath, making Naruto's clothes flap.

 **"I'm waiting, brat."**

The boy frowned as he shot the Fox a calculating look.

"Over the course of your life as the Kyuubi, you've intentionally saved the lives of seven humans." Naruto paused, his expression curving into a small grin as he now leaned back on his hands. "All young kids."

For the first time the Kyuubi looked away, as if the sheer ridiculousness of what the boy had said was beyond even acknowledging.

 **"What nonsense."**

"You've hated humanity for a really long time, but I know a tiny part of you still likes them as well. Just the way your father raised you," Naruto added, more as an afterthought than anything. "Really, _really_ , tiny part."

It was with a thundering crash of displaced water that the Kyuubi dropped into to a relaxed resting position, making Naruto cry out in alarm as a wave of water engulfed him momentarily, the force pushing him back out of the cage.

 **"Get out of here, brat. You've used up my patience for the day."**

"Okay, I'll visit later then," Naruto replied easily, getting back to his feet. "Though before I go…"

Under the peripheral gaze of the Kyuubi, Naruto put out his right hand, palm upwards, eyes closed in concentration. A few seconds later his fingertips lit up with a violet colored chakra, like each was aflame.

"Try not to make me go crazy," he said lightly, looking up through the bars. "It would probably cause a huge problem."

And with that, he jabbed his fingertips into his gut, directly over the center of the seal.

 **xxx**

Naruto awoke with a start, sitting up rapidly. The sun was still high overhead, moments of time had passed overall. Still, only the barest minimum of his awareness was on his surroundings. He was putting everything he had into suppressing the enormous influx of Kurama's chakra into his system, painfully widening his chakra pathways bit by bit all the while. The last thing he needed was anyone sensing the fox even for a second.

Truthfully, he wasn't exactly too sure what to expect apart from a certain amount of, well… discomfort. When Jiraiya did this to him before, he'd ended up blacking out and apparently almost killing his off guard sensei in a four-tailed rage.

Really, the risks he took for his village...

Five, ten, twenty minutes passed. Slowly the surge receded back to normal where he felt nothing but his own chakra circulating his system, though there was no doubt whatever fine control he'd managed to retain had gone right out the window. It was nearly an hour later that he finally stood, stretching with a huge yawn. He was also pleased to note that his ankles were entirely healed.

"Swell of him to hold off like that," Naruto said to himself, well aware that the fox knew he'd said it.

Considering everything that had happened, and that he had absolutely no idea how to go back to his original time, loosening the seal was the best step he could possibly take to fast track his recovery to the level he should be at. Abusing shadow clones would assist with anything that may have slipped, but there was no getting around his weakened and younger body. Easier access to Kurama's vast chakra and healing would allow him to tear his body apart and recover incredibly quickly. Really it was just unfair the kind of advantage he had.

It was too bad the other half of Kurama was locked behind the Shinigami's death seal. After everything he'd been through, not having that piece made him feel like he was missing something. Then again, it wasn't like he needed to be one of the strongest shinobi in the world anytime soon. No need to rush things along if it wasn't necessary. Besides, being a kid again was an opportunity in itself, especially given-

Naruto suddenly looked to his right as a shinobi landed on the roof as well. Even with the badger mask, he could tell the person was giving him a blank expression.

"Shouldn't you be at school?"

"School?"

"…."

"..."

 **Xxx**

"NARUTO!"

"I forgot I still went to school, okay?" the blonde shouted back, clearly frustrated. "Just graduate me already, this place sucks!"

"If you didn't suck then you would have graduated years ago!"

"Not cool, Iruka-sensei!"

"Hahahaha!"

"What a moron…"

"Say that to my face, bandaid!"

"Bandaid?!"

"Naruto you retard! What kind of idiot forgets something like that!"

"You aren't helping, Kiba!"

"Come on! It's not my fault he's developmental!"

"How'd you manage that big word with a tiny dog brain?"

"Hey don't insult dogs!"

"Then stop barking like one!"

"You wanna fight, orange slice?"

"Bring it on meow-mix!"

"OUTSIDE!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes as the two boys argued with Iruka, insulting each other with every other word as they were both dragged and summarily tossed into the hall by the backs of their shirts. They'd be buds after standing outside for ten minutes regardless, the two were that similar. It was also just like Naruto to show up to class halfway through the day only to get himself out in the hallway seconds later.

Turning his head away from the commotion, he returned to doing what he'd been occupying himself with for the majority of the class, looking out the window. It was a nice day outside and he was looking forward to class ending. Considering that he'd spent so many years in different regions it was nice to have mild weather once again. Besides, without the obsession of finding and killing his brother he found he had more time to do whatever in general. A lot more time.

Killing your brother once already kind of did that.

Actually, what was he going to do when they finally met? Get dango?

"Now, as I was saying before we were interrupted…"

Sasuke turned his head back to his returned sensei automatically. Old habits die hard.

"With your graduation test only a week away I wanted to remind you once again that although we aren't doing anything new, it is on you to practice your skills. The academy training ground is always open to you after class, so if you don't have another place you prefer I suggest you use it. The Academy library is also there if you need it. Any questions before we continue our review?"

There were a few, all of which Sasuke tuned out in favor of looking at his classmates. They would all become quite strong given some time, though certainly not to the level of himself and his old teammates.

Speaking of old teammates though…

Sakura was asleep. There was no second way about it. She looked awake enough, leaning on her hand, bangs just shrouding her eyes, but he could tell she was resting. All things considered she looked exhausted. Bizarre, really, he couldn't remember a day where the girl wasn't as attentive as could be in class. Or tired for that matter, at least before team training.

Then again, against all logic it truly did seem as though he'd been thrown back in time. Who could truly say that he was even in his own original timeline? For all he knew Sakura actually did do some kind of serious training and Hinata was some kind of super, extroverted maniac.

He paused for a moment before sneaking a quick look at the Hyuuga. She was still watching the door Naruto had been tossed through with a hidden fond expression, touching her pointer fingers together like she usually did when she was being shy.

Thank kami for that.

It wasn't long before the bell rang, signifying the end of the school day. Naruto ran off with Kiba, likely to do something stupid, and Sakura had also left immediately, which put him at the center of a group of girls asking him to spend time with them. Now there was something he still hadn't readjusted to…

"Well," he said to himself, performing a quick substitution with a log outside the nearby open window, much to the girls' disappointment, "this is a bit of a problem. How am I supposed to get my Mangekyou Sharingan back? Can I even get a Rinnegan again? Ugh I'm so weak…"

And he sulked off, the picture of misery.

 **Xxx**

"Sweetie, are you sure everything is okay?"

"It's fine, Mom, can I have more rice?"

"O-of course."

Sakura happily accepted her fourth bowl of rice, eating with a vigor worthy of her knucklehead classmate with the ramen obsession. Her mother had, quite expectedly, been rather concerned with the radical change in her eating habits. Going from hard dieting to what looked closer to binge eating was probably more than a little alarming. Her father however…

"Hahaha! That's my girl! Finally found her father's appetite didn't she?"

"Dad stop, I'll get fat if I eat like you," Sakura said with a smile. And they laughed, her mother just shaking her head at their nonsense.

Of course what her parents didn't know was that she was using an absurdly advanced medical technique to help stimulate her body growth and muscle development, something that required her to eat an obscene amount of food for the energy it took. Not as explosively potent as any Amakichi technique, but far more holistic and one hundred percent more permanent. It would take a while before she was anywhere near the strength she used to have, but she'd only have to suffer through it at this extreme for a week or so longer. At least when she was done she wouldn't feel like she was dying of starvation anymore. How had she ever had the energy to do anything before?

Oh wait, she hadn't. Useless fangirl.

Actually, what was she doing insulting her past self? She ended up becoming arguably one of the strongest ninja in the world before she turned twenty. People wished they had a success story like she did.

This time though she was shamelessly cheating.

"I'm really looking forward to graduation," she said suddenly, pausing between bites for some water. "Being on a team should be fun and I'll be able to help make the village a better place like you guys do!"

Her mother beamed at her while her father finished his drink with a satisfied exhale.

"You'll be a fantastic kunoichi," he said with the utmost faith. "You've got your mother's mind and your father's spirit. Whoever's on your team will be lucky to have you."

Sakura just grinned. The revenge obsessed survivor of a slaughtered clan and a downtrodden, desperate jinchuuriki with delusions of grandeur.

"They sure will."

 **XXXXX**

 **AN:** Short but sweet. It's a fun idea that I like more than any of the other Naruto ones I've come up with. All three of them try to fix things in their own way. The main aim I think here is gonna be fun and feels good. Let me know if you enjoyed it and want to see more :D

Also any of the Naruto stuff I put out has a decent chance of being totally inaccurate, so just roll with what you read and just enjoy. Cheers


	2. We Are Team Seven

**Chapter 2: Konoha inadvertently creates the strongest team in history… again.**

"Couldn't you have just thrown a shuriken or something?" Naruto grumbled, his orange jumpsuit hanging on a nearby branch of one of the many trees that grew directly out of the roof. He was sitting there in a white shirt and his noodle patterned boxers. "Iruka sensei is going to blame me for the room being all wet _and_ the empty pond by the window. Besides that thing takes forever to get dry and it's heavy."

"Don't know why you wear it then," Sasuke said honestly, though he was still putting most of his focus into fixing his hair back to how it had been earlier.

"Hey it's good clothing! Don't hate on the orange," Naruto argued indignantly, though he kept the heat out of his voice. It was a sensible statement after all. Of course, if something like wet clothing was enough to slow him down he'd be a failure of a shinobi in general. "You okay over there Sakura-chan?"

"I'm fine, Naruto." Sakura was just sitting with her knees to her chest, body angled away from the boys. "Everyone can see straight through my shirt, why wouldn't I be fine?"

"Ah, sorry," he said quickly at her blunt sarcasm, turning away from her with a light blush. Sasuke just rolled his eyes at the exchange, taking a moment to squeeze any extra water out of the bottom of his shirt. Naruto wasn't kidding about the empty pond.

"You're… not what I expected," Kakashi admitted freely, looking between the three of them with his single eye.

"What were you expecting, Sensei?" asked Sakura, curiosity peeking through her annoyance.

"Honestly?"

Kakashi took a second before pointing to her.

"A dieting, lovestruck girl who doesn't actually know the first thing about being a shinobi."

He pointed to Sasuke.

"A broody avenger with an extreme ego problem."

He pointed to Naruto.

"A weak idiot who's somehow convinced himself he can prank his way to becoming Hokage."

The three exchanged silent looks before turning back to their new sensei, now sheepish.

"Ah, yeah I can see that."

"Makes sense."

"Could be worse I guess."

Kakashi just gave them all a blank look. "Well in that case why don't you tell everyone a bit about yourselves. Name, age, strengths, likes and dislikes, and any dreams you might have. Keep it short. How about you go first," he added, motioning to Sasuke who just shrugged.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha, twelve years old. I'm a close range fighter, though I can use thrown weapons well. I like tomatoes and dislike being surrounded by airheads. My dreams…" He paused while the others looked at him expectantly. "Well, I'd really like to travel the world." _Before it's wrecked by war_ , he silently added.

"Oooh!"

Naruto had jumped to his feet, the picture of excitement.

"Yes, traveling!" he agreed wholeheartedly. "Where do you want to go?"

"Tea Country!" Sakura exclaimed, hand raised high, though the other was still over her chest protectively. "Oh, and Waterfall! I've heard it's beautiful there."

"Doesn't matter where, just want to travel," Sasuke replied.

"Yeah, make sure to take us on lots of missions out of the village, Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto.

"I'll keep that in mind," the man said dryly. "You next."

"Naruto Uzumaki, twelve years old!" he said brightly. "Close to mid-range fighter, and I'm pretty good with stealth and traps. I like ramen and hate having no money to get some when I'm hungry. My goal is to become friends with a ton of people from all over the world!" He paused for a second before adding, "Here too."

Sasuke gave a small snort of amusement which masked his surprise. Not Hokage?

"What's wrong with wanting to make a lot of friends?" Naruto demanded, giving the boy a cross look.

"Nothing," said Sasuke with a shrug, leaning back on his elbows. He mentally smirked at the surprised look Naruto was giving him. "It works out anyway because we're going to be traveling a lot. Just don't embarrass us."

"Why don't we just finish the introductions," said Kakashi, cutting off whatever Naruto had been planning on saying back. The sole girl of the group sat up a bit straighter at this, addressing them all.

"Of course! I'm Sakura Haruno, twelve years old. I'm a close-range fighter. I like flowers and dislike people with poor hygiene. I would really like to…" She broke off, looking between the three of them. "What?"

"Close ranged fighter?"

Surprisingly it was Naruto who'd said it, though the other two were definitely thinking it. Sakura just blushed.

"I've been training a lot lately and I think I do best close up," she said hotly. _If you knew how good I was you'd snap!_ she mentally shouted.

"Awesome!" Naruto said excitedly. "I can't wait to see you in action Sakura-chan!"

"Your dreams, Sakura?" Kakashi asked.

"I want the people I care about to be proud of me and to be useful to my team."

"An admirable goal," Kakashi said kindly. He could surely relate to something like that, especially given what he'd been expecting her to say. How interesting. "At any rate, I am Kakashi Hatake, Jonin sensei assigned to Team Seven. I am skilled in all aspects of being a shinobi. I like reading and dislike wasting my time. Maybe if we become a team I'll share my dreams with you three."

"Oh I- hang on," Naruto was on his feet. "What do you mean _if_ we become a team. We _are_ a team, sensei. Were you late to that meeting too?"

Kakashi chuckled, smiling at them with his one visible eye.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, all the academy graduates are given a final test by their Jonin sensei to see if they will become actual Genin. Most fail to be honest. Go back to the academy or get put with the reserves. Some drop out altogether and stay civilians. Quite sad."

"So we aren't actual Genin yet?" Sakura asked, surprised. Privately the girl was highly pleased at how perfectly she'd delivered the line.

"Nope."

They all spared a moment to watch Naruto fume over wasted years in a classroom before returning to the task at hand. Sasuke simply let out a huff.

"Fine, when is the test? Now?"

"Tomorrow morning at eight, training ground three. Come geared to fight. You'll want to skip breakfast as well," Kakashi added, getting to his feet at last. "You'll puke otherwise."

And with that he vanished in a swirl of leaves. Silence fell on the trio for a few seconds before it was broken.

"Ah, Sakura-chan can I talk with you for a second?"

The girl looked over at a somewhat nervous Naruto in surprise but nodded all the same. She knew what he was going to ask her anyway.

"I'm heading home then," said Sasuke, getting to his feet. "Make sure you eat tomorrow, even though he said don't. It's obviously misdirection."

Receiving surprised nods from his teammates he turned back to the rooftop door, heading for the stairs. Naruto waited until he was gone before speaking.

"Sakura-chan, I just wanted to say I'm really sorry for the way I've been bothering you this past year asking you out all the time."

Sakura, who had already been half way to gently rejecting that very thing, froze mid motion. What? Where did that come from?

"I uh…" Naruto looked off to the side, not willing to fully meet her eyes. "I got to talk to someone recently about how to get close with people and he said I've been doing it wrong, asking you out the way I have been. I really just want us to be friends."

"Oh." Well, what else was there to say? She'd been wondering how to go about making peace between them and he'd actually come to it himself, albeit with some guidance. She couldn't help but wonder who talked to him, considering how few adults there were in the entire village that actually wanted to help him. Especially now in his life. "Well then in that case, I'm sorry about how I've been treating you too. You didn't really deserve any of it and I've been pretty mean to you…I guess I was just trying to get attention from the wrong people," she added softly in reflection.

But Naruto was shaking his head, now beaming at her. "No way, Sakura-chan, water under the bridge. Uh, friends?" He held out his hand, palm up.

Sakura eyed it for a second before grinning, hitting it with her own in classic low-five style.

"Sure! We're teammates now after all."

"Ah Sakura-chan, your shirt," Naruto said quickly turning away, though he was still watching from the corner of his eyes.

Sakura immediately turned around, arms crossed over her chest once again.

 _Past or future, he's still a bit of a perv…_

Meanwhile, Sasuke took his ear away from the door and began to walk down the steps, finally heading home. Well that had been entirely unexpected, if not extremely welcome. He certainly wasn't in his original timeline if things like this could happen. A small smile made its way onto his face, refusing to budge.

Maybe this time travel thing wasn't so bad after all.

 **Xxx**

Naruto let out a long breath as he finally closed the door to his apartment behind him. He could barely still believe that it had worked out so well. His apology, which had only been given to hopefully lower Sakura's dislike of him, had actually turned into her apologizing _back_ and agreeing to be friends! She didn't even mention Sasuke once the entire day, something that was strange in itself, but that fact had given him the confidence to approach her.

"Am I really back in time?" he wondered for the hundredth time, sinking into the worn out couch with a thump. It looked like everything was the way it used to be, hell it _felt_ like the way it used to be, but there were definitely differences. Sakura was… nice? Sasuke didn't say his "dream" was to kill his brother, but the massacre still definitely happened so what was different? Clearly it was something but was that necessarily a bad thing? He seemed much more level headed in general now. Sasuke's obsession with vengeance had driven them all apart. Perhaps even caused events to end as they did. This time though… if he were able to keep the team together…

Naruto quickly shook his head, stamping down on the feeling. The sheer amount of hope that had risen within him just then was simply intense to experience. He was still so torn about being young again. True none of the bad things had happened yet, but everything he'd worked for and achieved had also been undone. All the people he'd become close to… none of them cared about him anymore. Not even Tsunade. It was bittersweet at best.

Still, it didn't change the fact that his reality was a replay of his past. No matter what happened he would deal with things as they came. Better to focus on more present issues...

… like the fact that he was getting embarrassed over seeing through Sakura's soaked shirt? What the heck! Just the thought was getting him red faced again! Maybe as an actual twelve-year-old he'd have been embarrassed, but he was a bit more than twice that in actuality. Thinking on it though…

"I've been acting pretty immature," he said aloud, frowning at the ceiling. "Did the kid me just not go away? Am I both?"

…

"Well this sucks."

 **xxx**

"The Hokage is ready to see you Hatake-san."

"Thanks, Tenri-chan," the Jonin said with an eye smile, heading down the hall to the Hokage's office.

"Kakashi, I take it you finally met with your team?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi gave him a knowing smile as he took a pull on his pipe. The papers that covered his desk were forgotten as he focused on his guest. "If they are anything like my old kids I'd imagine they'll be quite the handful. I was reading the final academy reports earlier, always interesting to see what there is to say about our star rookies..."

Kakashi took the seat opposite the Hokage's desk with a small exhale.

"I read them as well. Did you know that Sasuke wants to travel?" he asked blandly. "That was his dream. To see the world, apparently. Didn't matter where, just wants to travel. Sakura wants to make the people she cares about proud of her, and Naruto wants to become friends with people from all over. He seemed pretty excited at the prospect."

The Hokage slowly took his pipe from his mouth, placing it lightly on the desk.

"...What?"

"When I went to pick them up they were all knocked out too. It was cute to see them asleep like that. Got a picture," he added, holding up two fingers in a V shape.

 _Before I hit them with the water jutsu, anyway. Gold star reactions._

"So their profiles were…"

"More than a little inaccurate, if what I've seen is true," Kakashi finished with a shrug. "I'm actually curious to see how they do tomorrow," he continued with a smile. "They seem like a friendly group."

"You don't say…" Hiruzen chuckled, glancing over at the portrait of his predecessor at the side of the room. It wasn't often that the academy profiles were wrong, but it had happened before. Particularly with more notable shinobi.

"How interesting. Maybe I'll watch as well."

 **Xxx**

"Good morning, Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura politely as the man finally drew close to the three soon-to-be Genin.

"Sakura," Sasuke interrupted, tapping his wrist.

"Oh you're right. Good afternoon, sensei."

"Hey everyone, sorry I'm late," the Jonin said easily, looking between them. "I got lost on the road of life."

"It's a nice day," Sakura agreed, looking up at the clear blue sky. Indeed it had been a while since she'd relaxed under the warm sun without a care; her village at relative peace with the world.

"I see, did you all eat?"

"Just finished lunch actually," said Naruto, pointing to a couple takeout bags by the nearby tree. "Want some? We have a little left over."

"I ate on the way," Kakashi replied, completely unsurprised they hadn't been tricked by his light scare tactic. "I've been thinking about what you all said yesterday and I've decided to modify the original test I was going to give you."

"How so?" asked Sasuke. Indeed all three looked very curious at the news. Had they possibly heard about his test before this? If so then he'd definitely made the right decision.

"Well instead of making you fight each other to get some bells from me I think I'll just have you get a single one instead. A half hour time limit sounds good." He dangled the single bell on a string before their eyes. It gave off a minuscule jingle. "However…"

Kakashi pushed his forehead protector up to reveal a fully matured Sharingan spinning expectedly.

"It'll be harder."

Silence.

Then…

"Isn't that one of your eye things?" Naruto asked Sasuke, turning away from his sensei. The Uchiha actually blinked in surprise. He always thought Naruto hadn't known about the Sharingan initially.

"How do you know about that?" he demanded, the statement not entirely forced. Naruto, however, scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"The KMP caught me a lot when I first started doing pranks," he admitted. "Their eyes were like that sometimes. Is Kakashi sensei part of your clan? I thought, you know..."

"Hn… Sharingan Kakashi has always been a popular topic with the Uchiha," Sasuke said with a nod, adding after a moment, "Back when they were all still alive, that is. And no, he isn't."

"You don't say," said Kakashi with a smile, though they all knew he was humoring them.

"You're one of the top ninja in the entire village, taught by the Fourth Hokage himself," Sasuke responded, as if that explained everything. Well, to be honest it pretty much did. From an outside perspective, the three genin had hit the proverbial jackpot on senseis.

"Really?" Naruto gave Kakashi an awed look. He bumped past Sasuke to get closer, giving the white haired Jonin a wide eyed look. "That's so cool!"

"He was a very good sensei," Kakashi said after a moment, eyes lingering on Naruto. "And a good mentor. I was lucky to have him."

"I'm so psyched!" Naruto exclaimed, practically bouncing with energy. He was looking quite eager to begin. "Sensei, can we start?"

"Whenever you'd like," Kakashi said with a shrug, glancing over at Sakura. The girl was watching them with uncertainty but still ready to move.

"Okay."

At that the boy dropped into a seated position, giving Kakashi a momentary view of Sasuke with his hands in a tiger seal. It was only for an instant though because he was immediately engulfed in an enormous fireball. Naruto, seemingly unconcerned by the proximity of the flames directly above his head, was laughing.

"Hahaha, tricked him," he said happily.

Sasuke just huffed, cutting off the jutsu and looking around.

"Of course we didn't, dope, he escaped."

Indeed there was a blackened log where Kakashi had been seconds before.

"Oh come on that was perfect timing!" Naruto said grumpily. Okay he hadn't expected it to work at all but he was still annoyed a bit. Sasuke had caught onto his plan instantly and carried it through easily. Their sensei, of course, was long gone. Even now he couldn't detect the guy. Kakashi really was one of the top ninja around.

"So what's the plan?" Sakura said quickly, coming over to the other two. True they'd just pulled off a nice combo, but if they didn't want to work together-

"I wasn't kidding about what I just said." Sasuke gave each of them a serious look. "Father talked about him all the time. Our sensei is one of the strongest ninja in the entire village. He's been a possible Hokage candidate for years. Unless we work together we just don't stand a chance. Especially with his Sharingan out."

 _At least not without being found out_ , the three all unknowingly thought at the same time.

"If there's anything you've been holding back from the academy, now's the time to say so."

 _Damn sensei!_ Sasuke thought in annoyance. Why couldn't he have just kept the regular test? What caused the change? That small meeting the day before? Had that really been enough?

"I can do this."

There was a puff of smoke and suddenly there was another Naruto standing with them.

"Hey," he said, waving at them.

"I thought you were bad at bunshin," Sakura said in a very convincing confusion. It helped that she'd been expecting at least a dozen of them at once as opposed to one. Naruto's chakra control was simply abysmal. He'd probably gotten lucky for once.

"Um, I had a breakthrough," Naruto said with a shrug. "A big one," he added when Sasuke poked the grinning clone, eyes widening immediately.

"How about you?" Sasuke asked Sakura.

Unknown to the other two boys, Sakura was going through quite the inner dilemma. She couldn't reveal anything regarding her medical abilities or knowledge without some significant preparation. She also couldn't use _any_ of the techniques Tsunade had taught her. Who knew how she'd even arrange getting trained by the legend once again. Without that what did she really have? Everything she typically did revolved around it after all.

Oh, hang on…

 **Xxx**

Kakashi smiled to himself as he watched the three genin (plus one clone) huddle together closely as they talked strategy. Sasuke, given his knowledge of the sharingan as well as the Jonin himself, was most definitely leading the group at the moment. The white haired man was quite curious to see how he'd try fighting against his clan's famous bloodline.

Then there was his sensei's son. Apart from checking in on him occasionally there wasn't much he knew about the boy except through frequent reports. Anbu hadn't really afforded him the kind of freedom to keep personal tabs on anyone. Captain did have its perks though.

Finally, Sakura was a total mystery. He honestly didn't expect much from the girl compared to the other two. Of course, it wouldn't do to start training his team by underestimating them. After all, they might actually get the bell.

"Pfft, yeah right."

 **xxx**

An older man chuckled lightly as he watched Kakashi through an unassuming glass sphere. He manipulated the control seal to give him a better view and sat back, prepping his pipe for a long smoke.

"Tea, Neko?"

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," the purple haired Anbu said softly, taking the freshly poured cup in her hands. Her eyes however stayed focused on the crystal sphere.

 **xxx**

The battle started in the typical fashion most shinobi battles started. One moment there was nothing, in the next there was movement. Kakashi stood among a number of trees, paying little heed to the flickers that danced between them. His sharingan rendered the cover useless as the masses of chakra surrounded him. The whisper of cut air reached his ears, causing him to lean back as shuriken crossed his vision in both directions. Absently he noted that they had immediately gone for the kill.

A small grin hid from the world under a face mask.

Kakashi lept upwards as the ground at his feet burst open, orange sleeved hands clawing for his feet as dozens of Narutos emerged from all around, shuriken filling the air in a storm. Kakashi pulled a kunai, deflecting the incoming projectiles that were actually going to hit him while watching the vast majority miss him entirely. Ninja wire suddenly filled the air around him, ready to entangle him and bring him back to the ground.

 _A decent strategy._

Kakashi formed a single hand seal.

 _But not quite enough._

He vanished, allowing the log he'd changed places with to become trapped instead of him.

And suddenly ducked as a foot passed through the space his head had just been occupying. His legs left the ground as another attack made to drop him. Now completely horizontal he struck out, simultaneously repelling both his attackers as he returned to a regular stance. Both Sasuke and Naruto slid back, having guarded against the hits with their crossed arms, but were moving forward again nearly instantly, having been helped each by another Naruto clone. How many of those things could the boy make?

Deciding to test they boys' taijutsu skills, Kakashi engaged them at the upper levels of a typical genin, only to quickly accelerate into chunin territory. Perhaps individually they were manageable, but the two worked incredibly well together, covering each other when he tried to sneak in extra hits and setting one another up for follow-up strikes. If he were even an average chunin, he likely would have eventually fallen to their combo.

Without the Sharingan, obviously. Using it just made everything absolutely hopeless for the lot of them.

 _I should go find Sakura, I wonder what she is up to._

The thought crossed his mind innocuously and he moved with a burst of speed neither boy could keep up with. A devastating kick to the chest sent Naruto bodily from their current battlefield while the second kick had Sasuke joining him, though not before another immense blast of flame raced back to cook the jonin alive.

Kakashi disappeared in a shunshin, now standing above the area against a tree, scanning the masses of chakra below for the one he'd identified as Sakura before their battle had even begun.

 _Found you._

The girl was actually quite a distance away, hiding at the edge of a clearing he'd scouted earlier. Within seconds he was upon her, aiming a strike at her unprotected back. Instead of hitting the off guard girl though he connected with a suddenly appearing Naruto, sending them both rolling into the clearing but saving her from the hit.

Of course, Kakashi wasn't to be denied. Two kunai buried themselves in the ground at Naruto's feet, hissing for a split second before the explosive tags on them detonated with force. Sakura was knocked into the air and hit the ground hard, though pushed herself to her feet despite the damage. Naruto, who had once again taken the brunt of the explosion, was gone. He had been a clone.

Almost at once, eight more Naruto clones joined her from the trees.

"Stay back Sakura-chan, I've got this," one of them said confidently. Not even waiting for a response they all charged.

Kakashi almost smiled under his mask as the eight dashed in to meet their doom. There was no way Sasuke hadn't warned them about facing his sharingan head on. Had the frustration of nothing working finally gotten to his head?

With what could almost be called precognition, Kakashi _strolled_ through the eight, never taking a single hit while expending minimal effort to end each clone. Within four seconds they had all been dispatched.

Suddenly he flashed back five feet as both Sasuke and what was likely the original Naruto crashed into the spot he'd just been standing in. He had to give it to them, they didn't back down for anything. Now though…

"Leaf Village Secret Technique-"

His hands separated into two, half-tiger seals.

"Two Thousand Years of Pain!"

And that was the end of them.

While Naruto and Sasuke both crashed into the ground in the distance to recover, Kakashi finally faced off with the third member of the group. She was a little worse for wear, her clothes were singed in places and outright missing in others, but apart from a light blow to her modesty she looked well enough.

"I hope you don't think it'll be any easier if it's just me, even if I'm already hurt," Sakura said with a huff, already in a stance that immediately reminded him of the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist. The buildup of chakra in her hands was also quite clear, was she actually going to try to copy her classmate?

 _"I think I do best up close."_

How interesting.

A tensing of her legs was all the warning he had before Sakura was within his guard.

 _Fast!_

His arm came up to block her open palm, causing the chakra she'd gathered to splash out and dissipate, doing nothing. He blocked four more strikes like this before Sakura withdrew, circling around his right as she threw a series of shuriken he rapidly deflected with a drawn kunai. He watched them fall in a very slow motion, his sharingan spinning as it drained his chakra at a light and steady rate.

Sakura veered to the side as the shuriken she'd thrown came speeding back at her, using the chakra in her hand to sharply angle herself back at the jonin for another chakra infused salvo. Still the attack was blocked effortlessly, and after a dozen or so strikes she retreated, rejoining her partially recovered squad.

"Che- a lot harder than it looks," she grumbled, glancing at the boys. "You two okay?"

"We'll live," Naruto said with a wince. Two lifetimes of that attack was two too many. "This guy is crazy, he doesn't have any openings! Everyone has openings!"

"I told you it's the sharingan, we're moving in slow motion to him," Sasuke said, also doing his best to wipe the last few seconds of his life from his mind. "The only hits we're even landing are because he wants to block them."

"Don't stop now, your time's almost up," Kakashi said with a cheerful smile.

"If he doesn't have any openings we'll just have to make some," Sasuke said with a scowl. "One more time, give him everything you've got. It's all or nothing!"

Again the three dashed in at multiple angles, Sasuke opting for a dual wield style with two kunai, Naruto with a single, and Sakura again with chakra in her hands. Still holding the kunai of his own Kakashi wove through the three, blocking the attacks he couldn't easily dodge and striking back with pinpoint precision. Barely two seconds went by without one of the three being knocked from the melee, but they always recovered quickly and rejoined the fray.

"I have to wonder why you three hid your skills in the academy," Kakashi mused aloud as he ducked low beneath a sweeping kick from Sasuke while simultaneously parrying an attack from Sakura to the side. His hand darted up to grab Sasuke's still extended leg and used his superior strength to throw him into an oncoming Naruto. "Anyone want to explain?"

"Being subtle has its uses," Sakura said briefly, lunging forward suddenly. Kakashi sidestepped her by just enough so that her hand _almost_ touched the bell at his waist. He really did enjoy giving them the illusion it was just out of their reach. He then helped her along into the dirt with a kick at her back.

"In combat as well," he smiled back at her, turning away when he saw that she wasn't getting up. It looked as if her stamina had finally given out. About time too, even just minimally using his sharingan for half an hour was draining.

"Are you two done as well?" he called over to the boys who were untangling themselves. "You've got about two minutes left so you can still try to not fail."

"I don't know…" Sasuke finally pushed Naruto off of him and stood up, dusting himself off. "What do you think, Sakura?"

It was then that he realized something was wrong. Kakashi's eyes darted to his waist where the bell that was dangling peacefully suddenly melted away as he cleared his body of the genjutsu he'd been unknowingly placed under. Continuing to turn his head, he saw Sakura get to her feet.

"Haha score!"

Sakura held up two fingers in victory, a beaming smile on her face as she presented the bell.

Kakashi, who had frozen at the sight, suddenly chuckled and pulled his headband back over his sharingan.

"Ma ma, you actually got me."

 **xxx**

Meanwhile, on the other side of the village, the Hokage was chuckling as he watched the scene through his glass orb. Though Neko's face was still masked, he could tell she was giving the scene a shocked expression.

It was indeed exactly as Kakashi had said. Team Seven, and they _were_ a true Team Seven, was an exciting bunch. He was proud of all of them, not only for their exceptional skill and ability to work together flawlessly, but for seeming to have accepted one another as comrades. It all fed into the same thing. Leaf shinobi were taught that their true strength laid within teamwork. There was no replacement for an excellent team.

Add to the fact that Kakashi, _that_ Kakashi, actually seemed _interested_ in teaching them?

Those three were going to be absolute monsters.

 **xxx**

"It is my dream…" Kakashi began, instantly grabbing the attention of the three new Genin, "to ensure my sensei's legacy lives on, and become a person worthy of my best friend's memory. Maybe I'll get a cute wife too," he added with a small, undeniably perverted chuckle.

 _Not like that you won't_ , they thought as one, all with flat expressions.

"So congratulations. As of this moment we are officially Team Seven."

"Yatta!"

Even sprawled out on ground, Naruto was able to give a whooping cheer of joy. Sasuke wore a satisfied grin as he holstered the two kunai he'd been using with a flourish and Sakura went to go help her hapless blonde teammate up, smiling widely all the while. There was no denying that at that moment, things were good. Better than good. Better than great, even.

It just felt… right.

And for a reason that he couldn't quite explain, let alone begin to understand, Kakashi felt it too.

"Team Seven," Kakashi paused as the three snapped to attention from their various positions. "Meet here tomorrow morning at eight for our first assignment. Also, make sure to eat breakfast," he added with an eye smile. And with that he vanished in a swirl of leaves.

 **XXXXX**

 **AN:** There you go, hungry readers. I hope this will hold you over for a bit while I finish the next one, whenever that is. If the response is absolutely insane I'll see about cranking it out quicker. The Naruto community is a fun one to give to, so look forward to some friendship and fun in this one. As always, any questions hit me up.


	3. Fix the Past, Shatter the Future

**Chapter 3: Naruto not having any money is actually a good thing for once**

"I still can't believe that worked," Naruto said as they walked, shaking his head.

"Even the best eyes are useless when they aren't looking," Sasuke said with a shrug. "Besides he really went easy on us. Blinking constantly..."

"Yeah, I could tell," Sakura agreed tiredly. "I've got so much training to do. You two did a lot of the leg work…"

"Did you really have to take the blast though?" the Uchiha added disapprovingly. No matter how blown away he was with her skill, he couldn't help but point out the apparent flaw in her performance. "You're lucky you weren't hurt worse."

"I know, but I had to sell it," she reasoned, privately not telling them she'd healed the worst of the damage with a unique medical technique. Absently she tugged her shirt a bit higher to make sure she stayed fully covered. The cloth on her right shoulder was basically gone after the exchange following the explosion. "Mom's not going to be happy though."

"You were great, Sakura-chan! Don't think anything otherwise," Naruto insisted cheerfully. Indeed, that would have been much more difficult without her. Or Sasuke for that matter. What drug induced past had he found himself in where Sasuke was a team player and Sakura was _fast like Lee_?

"Sure, Naruto, just call me Sakura, okay?"

Said boy seemed taken aback for a second but quickly grinned, nodding.

"Anyway, let's celebrate! We can…" but Naruto suddenly broke off, laughing awkwardly. "Actually I just remembered I don't have anymore money for food. We can wait until after our first mission I guess."

Sasuke hesitated for a second, frowning at the situation. He knew quite well what Naruto's financial situation should be like these days, but they weren't supposed to be close enough to just pay for each other off the bat. Still, celebrating actually didn't sound so bad this time around so...

"Let's go to my place!"

Hang on, what?

"Your place?" Perhaps it was because of how surprised they were to hear the suggestion that both Sasuke and Naruto spoke in unison.

"Why not? My mom always cooks a lot of food because my dad likes to eat. There's more than enough for you two. Besides," she paused, looking between the two of them, "I want them to meet my teammates and they'll want to see who'll be watching my back out in the field."

The two boys exchanged blinking expressions before returning their attention to the girl.

"If… if you don't mind. Thanks, Sakura." Naruto said after a second, still feeling a bit apprehensive. This was new. As new as new could get for someone who was living their life over.

For the record that was pretty new.

Sasuke just nodded, not saying anything.

"Well then meet me by the big bank in the center of the village, we live in the residential district near there. Five?" Getting nods in return she smiled. "Good, I'll be waiting. Make sure you're clean, too!"

Because who could really trust boys with something like being clean, she figured.

And with that she walked off, leaving the two to stand there in silence. It wasn't until the girl was out of sight before it was broken.

"Hey, Sasuke, does Sakura seem, I dunno…" Naruto trailed off for a second before continuing. "Different?"

To this Sasuke shrugged. He had no idea how much this particular past was different from his own, so he decided to play it safe with his response. Of course he wholeheartedly agreed.

"It seems we've underestimated her drive to become a shinobi."

Naruto blinked before nodding vigorously.

"Yeah."

 **Xxx**

It was with a small sigh that Kakashi finally sat down at the restaurant booth. He was the final member of the group to have arrived, naturally, though the others were all well aware of his habits and weren't bothered by them at all.

Of course they were equally less messed up than he was and similarly happy about said fact.

"So, how did it go?" he asked, his sole eye moving from person. There was Asuma, Kurenai, Genma, and Yuuma. Including him they made half of the ten Jonin given teams of rookies from the academy this semester.

"Team Ten passed, though it was close," Asuma said first. "Shikaku's boy is too smart for his own good, I guess it helps he's the laziest brat I've ever met. Seems the only thing that gets him motivated is the idea of laying around."

"A lazy brat for a lazy bum, how nice," said Kurenai with a chuckle, getting a similar response from the others in the group. "Team Eight passed as well, with flying colors I might add. I was really impressed. It only took them half an hour to find me and I hid myself well enough to counter their strengths, too. They're a great group."

"Even the Inuzaka?" Genma asked with a knowing grin. The members of that particular clan were more than a little infamous for their baser instincts much in the same way Kurenai was more than a little attractive.

"I _might_ have had to put a slightly serious genjutsu on him for leering but he came around quickly," she continued cheerfully.

"Hahaha, well Team Five failed spectacularly," said Genma. "There was this moment where all three of them got tangled up together and landed in a big heap. Then they started fighting each other…" The man covered his face with a hand, groaning. "Failed them right there. With luck they'll pull their acts together. They weren't bad overall, just not ready to work in a team."

"My group was about the same," Yuuma said with a sigh. "One of the boys had some skill though so maybe I'll put in a note for him to be looked at again sooner. They'd all do better under Kuro-kun anyway."

Finally the Jonin turned to the cyclops of the group expectantly.

"So?"

"Passed," he said simply. Eyebrows around the table went up as one.

"Pressure?" Asuma asked slowly. Kakashi shook his head.

"Nope, the regular way. I'm impressed, to be honest."

"Wow, glad I didn't take that bet."

"They're an interesting group," Kakashi said with a shrug. He placed his now empty teacup on the table, causing the others to double take. Somehow it had been emptied while the man had been speaking.

"Tell us about them," said Yuuma in interest. "If they were able to pass your test everyone else must have missed something big.

"Maybe," Kakashi said with a shrug. "Naruto and Sasuke have been hiding some skill, but Sakura is the one I'm most surprised about. She's actually quite dedicated to the job. They worked very well in a team."

"Honestly if you hadn't witnessed it first hand I doubt I'd believe you," Asuma cut in. "That Sakura girl is apparently rivals with Ino, but with Ino being in a big clan and Sakura not I'd figured she was fair weaker. Not that Ino is anything particularly special at the moment but she's got some talent, that's for sure."

"I wouldn't know, I haven't seen your genin fight yet."

"Well maybe after a little while we can arrange something. Nothing like some friendly competition."

"Hah! Friendly competition," Gemma laughed. "I think Guy has completely filled that spot against Kakashi for all eternity. Besides you just want to win some money."

"It may be unwise anyway," Kakashi added lightly. "I was thinking about upping the pace a bit for them. I'm sure they'll be able to handle it, but I can't say the same for any other team going against them. Genin or not."

"Right…" Kurenai smiled. So Kakashi felt his team would be the best, huh? They'd see about that. "Just don't kill them accidentally."

"Well," Kakashi said, pushing himself to his feet. "It certainly wouldn't be by accident." And with that he walked back out of the restaurant.

"Man that guy is something else," Asuma mused, eyes still on the door. "Anyway, how do you want to split-" but he cut off as he returned his attention to the booth.

Gemma and Yuuma, who had been opposite each other against the window, were both gone, window wide open. Turning to Kurenai, who was still sitting next to him, his words once again faded as she herself turned into a number of flower petals that blew away on a nonexistent breeze.

And just like that, Asuma was alone.

"Your check, shinobi-san," the waitress said with a smile, placing the small slip of paper in front of him. Asuma just regarded it with a deadpan.

"Assholes."

 **Xxx**

A few blocks away, Kakashi waked with his book out, apparently absorbed as he smoothly wove through traffic. His mind, however, was as far away from the perverse material as it could be.

 _I died._

They'd taken the bell. They took it with him using his _sharingan_. Yes, he'd done a great deal to inconvenience himself for their handicap. Yes, he was only operating at a fraction of his ability in all fields. Yet despite this he'd still been incredibly advantaged in the fight, and the three had come out victorious. By putting him in a _genjutsu_ of all things.

When was the last time he'd fallen for such an attack from anyone _less_ than someone of Kurenai's ability, a woman who's ability was often spoken in the same sentence with that of Itachi Uchiha?

This, as well as the rest of the fight, told him two things.

Firstly he needed to get his fat ass back in shape.

Second he had a damn strong team. They could probably pass the Chunin Exam right now.

Where did he even begin when it came to analyzing them?

Well, perhaps he should begin with the sole girl on the team, blowing away his expectations and being the key to their plan to get the bell from him. Her taijutsu was textbook solid, nothing to write home about but certainly not poor by any standard. More than that her speed was alarmingly high for her stature. She didn't have the pure muscle mass built up like her teammates, so she relied on something much more impressive.

Impeccable chakra control.

Yes, she likely didn't have much in the way of reserves, but she used what she had with a precision found in few. Case in point she'd put him in a genjutsu just by touching him. The fact that it had taken as long as it did likely spoke to it being a newly developed technique than anything else. Her mind was sharp and her ability to replicate what she'd seen was quite high. How many other clanless children could emulate juuken stances so well?

Sasuke was just as surprising as his teammate, though for different reasons. Kakashi very much doubted the academy had produced a more talented Genin in years, but Sasuke pulled ahead in ways his year mates wouldn't see until at least making Chunin. Everything about his skill spoke to a practiced sharpness of an unparalleled level. This went double for his intellect. The strategies Sasuke used to keep him on his toes and distracted from his allies were effective and flexible.

He also moved like someone who had trained with a sword, though he didn't carry one. A secret then?

Finally there was Naruto. Shadow Clone technique?! Where the hell had he learned that? Coupled with _the most_ chakra he'd ever seen anyone have and it made for an endless wave of fighting power and stamina. But that wasn't what made it so amazing. Naruto knew intuitively how best to use the clone technique not only offensively or defensively, but in a supportive role. Not once when his team needed help the most was he not there to help. A pull here. A nudge there. Naruto made everything possible and then some.

He also hit like a train. Kid had some serious weight behind him.

Turning these three into a team… they could be incredible. Maybe even among the strongest in the world. If he guided them the right way-

Kakashi suddenly came to a stop in the street. Realization dawning across his face as he stared straight ahead.

"This actually sounds fun. Holy shit."

 **Xxx**

Sasuke let his eyes wander about the intersection he waited at, absently flipping a kunai in his left hand a couple times before switching it to the other. Villagers moved about with purpose, occasionally sparing him a look but returning to their business when they saw his headband or clan symbol. Those who recognized him gave a nod of respect or a quick, "Uchiha-san," to which he acknowledged with a nod of his own. The nearby clock on the outside of the bank read 4:50, which put him at waiting for ten minutes. Naruto, of course, was-

"Sasuke!"

-on time?

"Naruto?"

The orange clad Genin skidded to a halt in front of him, panting slightly.

"Hey, Sasuke… I'm not late right?"

In response, Sasuke just pointed to the clock, to which Naruto sighed in relief.

"I meant to leave ages ago so I wouldn't be late but I took a long time making sure I was ready. You think it's okay that I'm wearing what I usually do? You changed…"

Indeed, Sasuke had changed into something a little more formal than what he usually wore, as it seemed like the appropriate thing to do.

"Habit," he said dismissively. "It's fine, Sakura's not going to hit you or anything. She invited us over after all."

"Haha, yeah, that's good," Naruto laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "No one's ever invited me over before so I wasn't sure what to do. I don't exactly have anything else to wear anyway."

"Where did you get those things anyway?" Sasuke asked, genuinely curious. There was no doubt the more skilled shinobi tended to wear whatever they wanted, regardless of how eye-popping it could be. Case and point Naruto wore orange of all things, but damn if he hadn't been able to back it up with some ability. Still, at this point in his life it honestly seemed like…

"The person in charge of keeping an eye on me after I left the orphanage got me a bunch of them a little after I started the academy. She wasn't very nice about it though," he added with a frown.

"Did she hate you?"

The blunt question made the blonde wince, eyes ducking low before coming back up to meet a level gaze from Sasuke. Whether it was the complete lack of judgement or even a bit of understanding Naruto saw in his eyes neither could tell, but he did not drop his gaze again.

"I… yeah." He scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. "It took me a while, but I guess she was probably hoping I'll get myself killed on a mission."

"Pfft."

"I-it's not funny!" Naruto said angrily. He stopped though when Sasuke just held up a hand.

"If that woman really thinks wearing a bright color would get you killed she hasn't been paying attention to anything in the past few years. I'll bet all the other villages have you in their bingo books as Konoha's Pranking Master."

Naruto just grinned at the clear complement, cheered significantly.

"Well, I guess when you put it like that… er, what's a bingo book?"

And just like that, Sasuke's palm met his face.

"Sasuke! Naruto!"

"Sakura-cha, I mean, Sakura!" Naruto called out, waving the girl over.

"Great, you're both here on time! Follow-." She paused, eyes falling on the object in Sasuke's hand. "Why do you have a kunai?"

"I uhh…"

Sasuke was genuinely caught off guard as he looked down at the weapon. Why _had_ he brought it?

"I got it," Naruto said quickly, making a familiar hand seal. At once another Naruto popped into existence and took the thing, running off with a wave. "He'll drop it off at your place."

"Right, thanks."

He was still looking at the now empty hand in small wonder. When was the last time he'd gone anywhere without a weapon. When was the last time he _felt_ he could go somewhere without a weapon? Somewhere safe?

Weird.

"That's a pretty useful jutsu," Sasuke said as they walked.

"You said it," Naruto agreed. "I still don't know why it was in the Hokage's scroll. If everyone knew it the village would be unstoppable."

"Probably because it needs a ton of chakra," Sasuke reasoned. "Can you teach it to me?"

"Sure, I can try."

"Is that safe though?" Sakura warned. She didn't want her friend dying after all. "If you try to use a jutsu that you don't have the chakra for it'll fail at best. At worst you could die from chakra exhaustion."

"Ehh…" Sasuke wasn't too sure what to say. He could probably use the jutsu but he didn't want to push it so… "Why don't we just run it by Kakashi-sensei? He probably knows it anyway."

"That's sounds like a good idea," Sakura said, relieved. "Anyway, we're here. Let me just go inside really quickly and I'll be right back."

The home was quaint and tucked away between two other residential buildings. As Sakura disappeared Naruto suddenly turned to Sasuke.

"Done, I left it in the back with some shuriken you had laying around."

"That works… hang on how do you know that?" Sasuke asked, giving him an odd look. Internally though he was fist pumping at the opportunity his friend had handed him. The sooner Naruto realized the trick with Shadow Clones the better.

"What do you mean, I just dropped it… there?"

Naruto gave him the most befuddled look he could muster, while doing his best not to give himself away. He needed to be really careful about his knowledge or things could get dicey.

"That's really weird," he finally said. "Let's talk about it later though, I need to focus."

And he did. Even though he'd lived years beyond this time, he couldn't understate how important this was to him. It was ironic that after everything he'd faced, getting invited to a friends home was making him a thousand times more nervous.

What if they hated him for the Kyuubi? What if he did something wrong that messed everything up? Sakura actually liked him this time? Sasuke was cool too! He didn't want to lose that!

"Sasuke, you've been to people's homes before right?

He nodded, watching Naruto carefully. The genin looked quite nervous. Understandable, considering the way pretty much every adult in the village treated him.

"What am I supposed to do? I don't want to be rude."

Unfortunately, he didn't know what would happen here either.

"Just say thank you for their hospitality and don't do anything… extra," Sasuke said after a second. "Oh, make sure you put your shoes with the others just inside the door. And when you sit-" He paused as Naruto's eyes kept getting wider. Instead he moved closer and lowered his voice. "Relax and just follow my lead. If anything happens I'll help you out, okay?"

"Yeah, thanks."

The front door suddenly slid open, showing Sakura in a much more casual home outfit that had both boys blinking.

"Come on in."

Whatever the boys thought they'd see was immediately forgotten as they came face to face with a woman who could only be Sakura's mother. The welcoming smile faltered as her eyes moved from black to blonde.

"Hi, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, one of Sakura's teammates nice to… nice to meet you," Naruto blurted out, eyes hitting the floor as his gaze dropped. He'd nearly lost his steam at the surprised look the woman gave him when she realized who he was.

"And I'm Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura's other teammate. We both thank you for your hospitality," he said politely with a bow of his head. He subtly put a hand at Naruto's back, hoping to give him a little confidence.

"H-how polite." Sakura's mother was clearly caught off guard at seeing Naruto, but to her credit she took it in stride. "Welcome to my home. I'm Sakura's mother, Mebuki Haruno. Please come in."

As she turned to lead them further in, Sasuke quickly followed with Naruto close behind. No one saw the worried look on Sakura's face.

It felt like… a punch to the gut, honestly. She remembered as a little girl being told by her parents not to play with Naruto, but they always cited his being a troublemaker and that he was constantly getting caught up with the KMP. It made sense, and as years with him in her class went on, she'd fed into the opinions of her peers all too easily.

And yet, she couldn't help but give her mother the benefit of the doubt. Like her father, she was a ninja of the village, and knew the importance of teams. Sakura herself had already spoken highly of her team, though not by name. In setting this up, she'd created a scenario to show that her parents were good people, who wouldn't judge Naruto because of the Kyuubi.

Would they really give him a chance?

 **Xxx**

Kizashi Haruno was not who the boys had been expecting. Perhaps it had been the rather serious flashes that Mebuki gave off, but they'd both expected a stern faced, towering man with not a smiling muscle in his face. Instead…

"Dear, you can't give the children alcohol!"

"Nonsense! They're all considered adults in the eyes of the village with those headbands. Our petal is all grown up and making her parents so proud! I should tell you boys about the time when she was barely taller than my knee- "

"Daaaaad!"

It was all Sasuke and Naruto could do to keep up with the pace of the chaotic conversation that was bouncing around the dining table, each holding the sake cup forced into their hands in bemusement. Sakura was scarlet with embarrassment from the way her father was doting, but laughing at the same time at his antics. Mebuki it seemed was the most level headed of the bunch.

"Of course, they're adults now," she repeated dryly, serving herself a dumpling. "I'll be sure to remember that the next time the Ryuudo family brings their son for a visit."

"-which is why after this toast you won't be having anymore," Kizashi said immediately, getting his wife to roll her eyes. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves." He raised the glass. "To the new Team Seven!"

"Team Seven!"

And they all drank, followed by the immediate coughing of said Team.

"Ugh, it's horrible!" Sakura complained, putting the cup down with a shudder. Sasuke just grimaced and coughed again while Naruto thumped his chest. Nothing on what the boss toad liked to carry around, but that stuff wasn't made for humans anyway. Of course it wasn't like this stuff was much better.

"Only an adult will appreciate the taste," Kizashi said with a nod, draining a second cup. It didn't seem to have an effect on him at all, he may as well have been drinking water. "You two must feel pretty lucky having my daughter on your team, am I right?"

"Yes!"

"Dad!"

"Tell us how the test went! With _that_ guy as your sensei, it's amazing you passed at all! Spare us no detail!

Sakura and Sasuke blinked before naturally turning to Naruto, who went wide eyed.

"You tell good stories," Sasuke said with a shrug. Also he didn't want to talk much if he could avoid it.

"Make sure you don't brag too much!" Sakura said with a nod. "We leave this to you!"

Naruto took a deep breath before giving his cheeks a light slap.

"Alright!" He jumped to his feet, putting in his best Jiraiya. "Hang onto your sake, Haruno-san! This is a story about how your daughter put the great Sharingan Kakashi into a genjutsu with help from her amazing teammates to win the challenge… the story of three genin who would forever protect the leaf village from untold perils… the tale of the birth of the greatest team of shinobi the world has ever seen!"

He grinned, too excited by the prospect of his new future. Too excited to let a shadow of nerves stop him from moving forward.

"And it all started when we had a pond dumped on our heads."

 **Xxx**

"It's been a long time… since I had a meal like that."

Sasuke's voice broke the silence that had stood between the two boys since leaving Sakura's home. It was late in the evening, the two having stayed for much longer than they'd expected. Eventually they couldn't stay any longer without imposing, and the Harunos bid them a good night, leaving the boys to their thoughts.

"It was good."

Naruto's gaze was on the darkening sky.

"Yeah."

Silence returned to the pair as they continued to walk, occasionally passing another person on the street.

Eventually they reached the point where they would have to split up to continue home. Sasuke to the left, Naruto straight. There wasn't another soul in sight.

"See you at training tomorrow."

"Yeah, see ya."

Yet neither moved from the intersection. Lights began flickering on in places to illuminate the streets and homes became even more conspicuous by their windows.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked, looking at his teammate.

"It's nothing. What about you?"

"Nothing."

"..."

"..."

"Okay, I'll be honest if you will," said Naruto, holding out his pinky. "No laughing."

"...Fine," Sasuke agreed, hooking his own.

"I don't want to go home," Naruto admitted, expression having fallen greatly. "It just reminds me I'm on my own."

Sasuke sighed.

"I didn't expect going to Sakura's place to affect me that much either."

"You too?" Naruto's surprised look was met with Sasuke's raised eyebrows. "Oh, right. Sorry."

Sasuke said nothing, his eyes fixed back in the direction of Sakura's home.

"It's just…"

Naruto looked at his empty hands.

"How do _we_ get that?"

"..."

Naruto and Sasuke exchanges brief looks.

"Hey, Sasuke…"

"Hm?"

"Wanna come to my place?"

 ** **XXXXX****

 ** **AN:**** **Another chapter for the small following this has drawn. Hope you've enjoyed it. Would love to hear your thoughts or if there was anything that you're particularly interested in seeing. I'm kinda going free flow with this so who knows what'll happen ;) Cheers**


	4. Time Travelling Baby's First Not-D-Rank

**Chapter 4: D-ranks have a novelty worth of zero. In other words they suck**

"Hello, Iruka, anything exciting lined up for us today?"

If anything, Iruka's smile was just as enthusiastic as the one Kakashi was wearing beneath his mask.

"Enough that you can pick your favorite one!" he replied, beaming at the emotionless expressions he was getting from the three genin in front of his raised desk. "We need a fence painted, a warehouse organized, litter picked up, and…" He paused for dramatic effect. "Babysitting!"

"You suck, Iruka-sensei," said Naruto flatly.

"Karma's a female dog, Naruto," Iruka said bluntly, face decidedly smug. "Maybe in your next life you won't prank people so much and have some respect for a formal education."

Much to everyone's silent amusement, Naruto groaned loudly, hands grabbing his hair in aggravation as he slumped to the floor.

"Sensei, isn't there anything else we could do?" Sakura asked, her voice somewhat strained. They had, after all, done nothing but D-ranks all week. Four a day as a matter of fact. "We've done over twenty missions already…"

 _Twenty!_ Sakura was almost beside herself with irritation. They'd barely done _half_ that last time and they'd gone to enter the damned Chunin Exams right after! _Months_ later! This Kakashi was _crazy!_

"I'm sorry Sakura, even though your team has an excellent record so far, you haven't been together long enough to qualify something outside of the village," Iruka explained, much more willing to talk to one of his best and most attentive students.

"What about something inside the village then?" asked Sasuke, pushing his annoyance away with a sigh. "There must be something more challenging than painting people's fences."

"Well…" Iruka paused to give Kakashi a silent question to which the man shrugged apathetically. "I suppose I do have something you could do. I normally would give this to a more veteran Genin team but why not? Against all odds, I've actually heard really good things about your teamwork and maybe you'll learn something too." He shuffled through a pile of scrolls before tossing one to Sasuke.

"What is it?" asked Naruto dejectedly, finally coming out of his inner turmoil.

"There's been a request for a team to assist with training newer reserve forces. As I understand it, one of their Chunin is in the hospital for something and they didn't want to slack off."

"Demonstrate what a functioning Genin team looks like," Sasuke read off the scroll before snapping it shut and stowing it away. "Easy."

"Anything's better than what we're doing now," Naruto groused. "Ji-ji!"

The boy suddenly lit up as the Hokage walked into the mission dispatch room. There was a low "Hokage-sama" that came from the room at large, most everyone bowing to some extent in respect, particularly the handful of civilians who were in the room being assigned escorts. The various Chunin, used to seeing the Hokage fairly regularly, went back to their business quickly.

"Naruto, be respectful you're a Genin now." Sakura prodded the beaming blonde on the side of his head lightly, a far cry from the usual wallop he'd until recently come to expect from her. "It might of been different when you were a civilian, but he's your commanding officer now."

"Well said, Sakura," the Hokage said with a smile, approaching Iruka's position. He nodded at their team leader. "Kakashi."

"Yo."

Sakura sighed, bringing the heel of her hand to her forehead.

 _This is literally the reason he has no respect for the chain of command._

"Ji-ji, I get that you can't give me the big missions yet, but you'd better hold one of the princess-saving ones for me. I know you get them!" he said with an accusing finger.

Sasuke couldn't help but smirk at that, because Naruto was actually entirely correct.

"Of course, Naruto, I'll be sure to keep an eye out," the Hokage said in good humor. "Have they taken a mission, Iruka?"

"Reserve training," he said with a nod, already returning to his usual grind.

"Oh, an excellent task," the Kage said in approval. "In that case, work well."

"What do you say, team?" Kakashi said expectantly.

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei," the three Genin chorused. At least this time it didn't sound like they were all dead.

"There we go."

 **Xxx**

It was with fairly wide eyes that that the three genin entered the fort that was training ground one in the center of the village. Hundreds of teenagers stood in formation, all wearing a variation of a flak jacket and dark pants, as they went through the forms of what was often improperly referred to as academy style taijutsu. A lone Chunin stood at the head of the formation, watching them all with a critical eye.

"Strike!"

"Haa!"

"Strike!"

"Haa!"

Further on the field was split into a large number of smaller sections that allowed for team training as well as anything extra involving the team composition. As Kakashi explained earlier, training field two was exclusively reserved for jutsu.

Naruto did not have to do much of anything to fake his amazement. While he was more than aware of what his village fielded in military strength, he'd never been exposed to this side of it before. That could actually be said for a lot of things on the village. It was like much of his life had been spent as the main character of a deranged writer's story.

...Wait a minute...

"Yo, Kurosaki."

Kakashi's voice brought the blonde out of his thoughts. A jonin with spiky, orangish hair had approached them from the nearby building, regarding them with a confused expression. The man was missing the sleeves on his uniform, exposing his well defined arms.

"Thought that was you," he said, stopping in front of them. "Sup, Kakashi? Showing your squad around?"

At this Kakashi gave Sasuke a meaningful look, nodding at the jonin. Understanding what he wanted, Sasuke fished out the mission scroll and held it out to the jonin.

"Team Seven, reporting as requested."

"I thought you had a team of rookies," the man said, casting the three of them a critical look as he glanced over the scroll, eyes lingering on the seal at the bottom that authenticated it as a village D-rank. "As in graduated last week rookies. No offense, but we specifically asked for a team with more field experience. _Any_ field experience."

"None taken," Kakashi returned with an eye smile. Somewhat disarmed, the jonin just sighed, returning the scroll to Sasuke.

"Whatever, if it doesn't work out we'll just request another team. Follow me."

Either unaware or uncaring of the disgruntled expressions the genin were giving him, he led the four around the field.

"You should already know this, but the majority of Konoha's ninja forces are trained here before they get assigned somewhere. The academy is made to build specialist teams. We still put most children who want to become shinobi through there but we simply don't have the jonin to field four-man squads with all those genin _and_ take care of the higher ranked missions the village is given. Only the very best get them and everyone else trains here. Eventually they get put on teams working under experienced Chunin until they can get promoted and join Konoha's main military force. It works pretty well, all said and done. They aren't neglected here after all."

"How much time do they train a day?" Sakura asked in curiosity. It was one thing to know about it from class, but another entirely to see it. Training ground one was walled off from the rest of the village, so there wasn't really any reason to enter unless she had business there. Admittedly most of her previous youth had been spent stalking a revenge obsessed emo boy.

"About half of their day is spent here," Kurosaki said. "Like I said, they aren't neglected, but if you're going to take care of a bunch of people you may as well get your money's worth."

"Ma, Kurosaki, you've become so good at explaining things," Kakashi said blithely, giving the man another eye smile. "At this rate I'll have nothing to teach them by the time we leave."

"You guys must have terrible luck, getting this guy as a sensei," Kurosaki said to the three genin, ignoring the one eyed man. "He's just gotten worse since we were kids if you ask me. At least back then he was kind of serious."

"I don't know, he's only kind of late and reads porn all the time," said Sakura after some thought. Honestly the thought of having someone other than the white haired jonin as their sensei was a sad one.

Kakashi, who had already taken out his Icha Icha, simply smiled and put a hand on her head, rubbing it absently.

Of course this had the effect of completely messing up her hair.

"Sensei!" she whined, producing a brush from seemingly nowhere and attacking her hair with it immediately. Okay, so having near waist-length hair again had brought around a sense of vanity once more. At least she was more than skilled enough to prevent from it being used as a weapon against her. Though she suspected that just might be a holdover from her twelve year old self that she'd seemingly merged with. Did she mention how much that part of her sucked recently? It _really_ sucked. Having half your impulses driven by inane preteen nonsense in the beginnings of puberty was positively maddening. Not to mention the whole _boys_ thing. Did she mention boys yet? Ugggghhhhh…

"Sure, kid," Kurosaki said with a smirk. "Anyway that's about it for this place. Any questions?"

"Are you strong?" asked Naruto curiously.

"Is water wet?"

"Can we not do the mission and fight you instead?" he continued.

Sasuke gave the blonde a look before considering the Jonin before them. Hmm…

Sakura was just shaking her head in exasperation. This happened _way_ too much in all honesty.

"Oh?"

Suddenly there was a burst of incredibly dense chakra from directly in front of them. It crashed over them like a full lake of water. Kurosaki was now looking at them with interest, his expression settled into a toothy grin.

"Well, l suppose I can spare a few seconds. Every moment is a teachable one, apparently."

And suddenly his arms were out, each hand catching the wrist of Sasuke and Naruto who had attempted to drive kunai into his left kidney and right lung respectively, stopping the attacks just short of their marks. His head ducked forwards as Sakura's kunai barely missed the back of his head, the girl following shortly after.

The second move was just as quick as the first. Naruto and Sasuke had their own weapons used to block the second attacks being made with their other hands. Sakura however, had slightly more luck then her teammates. Her mid air roundhouse kick had been dodged as well, but it seemed Kurosaki hadn't anticipated there being a knife tip extending from the top of her shoe. The resulting contact across his left cheek drew a bright line that left all who were watching stunned.

Freed, the three Genin regrouped to see the Jonin hadn't moved from his position after being hit. However instead of blood they saw blue flickering flames dancing along the point of contact in a thin line.

"Chakra?" Sakura said in surprise.

"Yo… Kakashi."

Kurosaki straightened and ran a thumb along the score. When he lowered his hand the Chakra was gone, not a single indication he'd been hit remaining.

"What lottery did you win to get these three?"

"I must have been a great person in a past life I guess," he said with a shrug.

 _No you weren't,_ the three simultaneously thought.

"Wanna trade?"

"Pass. Honestly Kurosaki, are you trying to scare them to death?" Kakashi asked, absently thumbing a page of his book. Kurosaki looked from him to the three serious looking genin and back before Kakashi lifted a finger to point over the man's shoulder.

Nearly all of the trainees were shivering on the spot, frozen in place. The ones closest certainly were getting the worst of it.

"Aaah, oops. My bad, guys." He let the chakra go with an awkward chuckle. "Carry on then."

Most of the trainees collapsed to the ground with various levels of groaning.

"Chakra freaks…" Kakashi muttered, turning another page. "No offense, Naruto."

"None taken, Sensei," the blonde returned after a second.

"Maybe you three won't be so bad for this after all," Kurosaki said with a grin, looking between the Genin. "Come see me after you finish your job here."

With that he continued to lead them to the very back of the field before flickering out of sight.

Looking at the place he'd been standing in last, Sakura asked, "Sensei, what's his full name?"

"He just goes by Kurosaki," their sensei answered with a shrug. "We're not allowed to talk about it."

Sasuke just shook his head.

"Whatever, let's get to work."

 **Xxx**

"You've got to be kidding me."

Of the thirty or so genin who were there to work with Team Seven, one was pointing directly to Naruto with a dull expression.

"You actually got on a team? How the hell does my life suck so much?"

"Oh, didn't see you there," said Naruto in surprise. "Hey Taki."

"It's Takashi!"

"Eh, my bad…" Naruto scratched a whiskered cheek. Turning away from the despairing ninja to the chunin of the group he continued, "Anyway, we're Team Seven. Sasuke?"

"Here," he said, holding out the mission scroll.

"Thanks for coming," the chunin said with a nod, taking it and putting it in his pocket. "Let me explain to you what's going to happen while you're here. These genin," he jerked his thumb at the assembled group, "have been recently promoted and are soon going to be put into squads of three like you already are. However, they'll need to show they are ready for that to happen, and one aspect of that is showing they can operate successfully on a team in different situations."

"Makes sense," Sakura said with a nod. She pointed at the amassed group of new genin. "Did you want us to fight them all?"

"No, we want them to watch you in action and reflect on what they're seeing. Your team will need to recover a package from a facility."

The three members of Team Seven traded surprised looks.

"Do you think Iruka sensei knew that before he gave us the mission?" Naruto posed.

"Not likely." Sasuke gave the chunin a satisfied grin. "When do we get started?"

The Uchiha caught a scroll that was suddenly thrown at him.

"Now. Genin, report to the viewing room. One last thing, Team Seven." As the group hustled away, the chunin regraded them impassively. "Don't destroy any cameras you find. That is how the we will be watching your progress. Everything else is fair game."

And with that the chunin vanished in a swirl of leaves.

 **Xxx**

"Um, Hatake-san, shouldn't you be out there with them?"

Kakashi looked up from his book. One of the genin from the viewing group seemed was giving him a curious look, mirrored by those around her.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, as the sensei of Team Seven, wouldn't you help guide them for missions?" she continued. "We would be working with our Chunin captain in the same situation."

"Ah, well to be honest they told me I could relax up here. They're such great kids," he said with an eye smile.

"What he means is that they don't need him in the slightest."

The genin strand to attention at the sound of the new voice.

"Kurosaki-Taichou!"

"Relax, kids, just here to watch," said the jonin, waving their salutes away with a hand. He looked up at the large screen against the far wall, split into dozens of smaller sections for each security camera. "We recording this?"

"Of course, Taichou," said one of the chunin posted at the station.

"Good, this should be entertaining."

Kakashi's book snapped shut, drawing all eyes to him.

"What did you do?"

His question was directed at the orange haired jonin. Kurosaki just grinned.

"I made this worth their time."

 **Xxx**

Team Seven sat in relative ease a few hundred meters from the group of buildings they knew their objective was located in. There was no time limit and this was a first for the team in general. At least as far as any of them thought.

"Read the objective one more time, Sakura," Sasuke said, eyes still fixed on the buildings.

"The fire daimyo's daughter has been kidnapped by a force of unknown size and affiliation. Unpayable ransom has been demanded. Primary objective is to recover the VIP and extract her. Secondary objective is to gain intel on the group upon retreat or optionally crush them. We are free to act as we see fit," she finished. "Failure if the VIP is killed."

"Um, I know I'm usually fired up about this kind of stuff but… would a team of genin ever get this kind of a mission?" Naruto asked, already knowing exactly what the answer to his question was.

"Definitely not," Sasuke said, shaking his head. "This stinks. The daimyo's _daughter?_ D-rank my ass."

"I agree. I know we told Kakashi-sensei to go, but we could have used him," Sakura said with a long breath. Why couldn't they just get a regular C-rank mission like normal advanced genin teams? Where was her Wave mission, dammit!

"Doesn't matter." Naruto "There are going to be times that we'll need to do stuff without him. Is there a description of the target?"

Sakura showed them both a detailed color sketch of an attractive young woman with long hair in a kimono.

 _Not the prettiest princess I've seen, but still cute,_ Naruto mused.

"There are a number of problems we have facing us," she said as the two memorized her appearance. "We don't know where she is, how many we face, what their abilities are, or anything about the buildings. We'll have to assume they'll kill her if there's no way out for them. We need to get some intel first."

"We should draw them out," Sasuke proposed. "Pull their attention in one direction while we get the target from another." He turned to Naruto. "How many clones can you comfortably make?"

"Three words: One man army."

"Should we do that though?" Sakura asked. "It'll definitely get a response, but it'll put them on guard if they feel threatened."

"Hn…" the Uchiha frowned, looking between his two teammates. His gaze stopped on Naruto, who just waited patiently for once. What would the Naruto he grew up with do in this situation?

"Actually, I've got an even better idea."

He pulled in the other two and whispered rapidly.

"You won't."

Naruto was looking at Sasuke with wide eyes.

"I'm the least suited to this mission, so I'm the obvious choice," he said with a shrug. "I'll leave her to you?"

"You can count on us," Sakura said with a nod. "Let's clear this mission!"

"Alright. Team Seven, move out!"

The three vanished.

 **Xxx**

"Man, where the hell are they?"

"It's been nearly thirty minutes already, did they just give up?"

"Come on you know that wouldn't happen."

"I keep thinking I see something but it's the captive just playing with her hair."

"Doesn't anyone else think this mission is a bit above genin level?"

Kakashi yawned, his eye making the same circuit of screens for the six-hundredth time. His team was nowhere to be found, which meant they'd either spent quite a while planning their operation, or were still preparing yet. And of course…

He looked over at the only other jonin in the room. Kurosaki was still watching the screens in patience. Kakashi certainly was not happy that he'd messed with their mission just because the kids had potential. Not was he blind to what was on the screens. A captive? Dozens of ninja, many of who he recognized as chunin and even some _jonin_? He knew they stood virtually no chance of successfully completing this objective. What was Kurosaki's real aim?

"There's something at the front of the building!"

All eyes were drawn to the main monitor, which zoomed in to the line figure who approached at a steady walk. It was not, as they expected, one of the three genin from Team Seven.

It was a samurai.

Wearing simple but distinctive gear, the samurai moved closer across the wide open space that faced the front of the building. Through the other cameras the viewers could see the ninja that controlled the building were repositioning rapidly to his presence. Eventually he stopped, a couple dozen or so meters from the front door where they could get a good look at his face.

"Damn. He's hot."

The words, spoken by the genin who had questioned Kakashi earlier, drew two general responses from the group. Agreement from the girls, and annoyance from the boys, though some admitted he looked cool. Kakashi only just prevented himself from rolling his eye.

"Bandits!"

The samurai's voice rang out clearly through the speakers, deep and confident.

"I have journeyed through many lands to stand at your door. Slain many foes to bring you to your end. For I am a hero!"

"Is this guy serious?"

"I am Kenjiro Masame, and for the love of the princess…!"

He drew his sword with a ring of steel in the air.

"I will save her!"

 **XXXXXXXXXX**

 **A/N:** Hey all, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Really liking these short chapters, it's been fun.

I realized from some responses so far that my lack of being very specific about when the three were in the canon future was pushing people in the wrong direction. I don't inherently consider this to be a flaw of the story, as the context clues would build this out with enough chapters and I'd suggest against making assumptions in any story you read, but I'll draw a hard line just for clarity.

Neither Naruto, Sakura, or Sasuke were married or close to being so when the time skip back happened. It happens a few years after the 4th shinobi war ends. So however that actually works out in the canon (as I just don't know the ages of the characters well), in my mind the three were around 21 when it happens. Don't sweat the small stuff here, it'll take away from the experience.

Why does it matter? Well as far as relationships went, no one was married, and none of them had children. So you won't see any kind of reference to them at all.

Another thing: I occasionally thrown cameo characters in stories because a friend of mine enjoys it a lot. Sorry if it bugs you.

Last thing: My brain when it comes to the words genin, chunin, and jonin, etc. Sometimes I capitalize them, sometimes I don't. Just don't pay it any mind, it's my own brand of proper noun crazy I shift in and out of from page to page.

Let me know what you think. Cheers


End file.
